The Floating Train Is No More

The floating train is no more...

More sad news from Alaska this week as Frank Keller reported that the final AquaTrain sailed from Whittier to Prince Rupert ending just shy of six decades of service and wiping Alaska from Canadian National’s system map for the first time since 1962. So let’s take a look back at what was lost. After their first two decades of service the CN made a major commitment when they contracted with Shin-A shipbuilding to build the then world’s largest railcar barge at 400 feet long by 100 feet wide with a capacity for 45 standard 50 foot freight cars on eight tracks. Launched in 1982 and sailing from Prince Rupert, BC the AquaTrain offered the shortest railcar service to Alaska at only 600 miles slip to slip. At its peak the barge operated on roughly a 12 day cycle making 30 complete round trips to Alaska annually.

As a CN service the physical and paper interchange with the Alaska Railroad was Whittier northbound and returning southbound cars actually went off demurrage in Anchorage where they staged pending the next cycled arrival. Operated by Foss Maritime on behalf of CN she was towed by either the Justine Foss or the Barbara Foss, 4300 HP twin screw tugs both built in 1976 by McDermott Shipyards of New Iberia, LA. At least for now Foss still lists this service on their web site and you can check it out here. And while the CN has deleted the AquaTrain service from their corporate home page this advertising video they produced less than a year ago can still be found here.

Anyway, my all time favorite image of this barge is this aerial view seen here.

But looking back eight years prior here is a ground level shot on another typically gloomy day at the head of Prince William Sound. The Barbara Foss is easing the lightly loaded barge up to the slip in this view of the stern. Note the lashing rails and rows of lights (beneath the little pedestals) between each track. Also note how the 8 tracks taper to six at the stern with a ladder and two switches on the deck. This is to accommodate the layout of the slip in Prince Rupert which does not allow the barge to move to four positions like they can here (the AML barges are 8 straight tracks and the barge is shifted side to side to line up with the two track slip).

Visible to the northeast about five miles across Passage Canal can be seen five mile long Billings Glacier flowing down from the Chugach Mountains. This river of ice was named in 1908 by the U.S. Geological Survey for commodore Joseph Billings of the Imperial Russian Navy who commanded a Russian exploration and surveying expedition in the Bering Sea and North Pacific Ocean in 1791-92.

Whittier, Alaska
Tuesday August 03, 2010

Photo courtesy of Dave Blazejewski